NULG vs SPYG: Differences, Returns & Fees

NULG and SPYG hold 34% of their weight in the same names, and SPYG returned +15.8% over the year. Net assets: $2.7bn on Jul 31, 2026 for Nuveen ESG Large-Cap Growth ETF, and $56.1bn on Oct 20, 2026 for State Street SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 Growth ETF.

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SPYG costs 0.22 points a year less; their one-year returns differ by 4.3 points; SPYG is 19.6 times larger.

NULG vs SPYG: Differences, Returns & Fees
NULGSPYG
Expense ratio0.26%0.04%
Net assets, as of Jul 31, 2026$2.7bn$52.2bn
Total return, 1 year+11.5%+15.8%
What it tracksNuveen ESG USA Large-Cap Growth IndexS&P 500 Growth Index
Holdings in common34%
Top ten holdings, share of the fund44.0%60.2%
Below its high6.1%, high on Aug 13, 20264.2%, high on Oct 6, 2026

Holdings in common uses holdings dated Jul 31, 2026 and Oct 19, 2026.

+11.5%
NULG total return, 1 year
+15.8%
SPYG total return, 1 year
0.26%
NULG expense ratio
0.04%
SPYG expense ratio

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Client brief · page 1 of 2Report BR-AF43C8BB3E

NULG and SPYG are built for the same job. How do they differ in cost, holdings and results?

  1. What each follows. NULG follows Nuveen ESG USA Large-Cap Growth Index and SPYG follows S&P 500 Growth Index.
  2. Holdings in common. 34% of the weight is in the same securities (holdings dated Jul 31, 2026 and Oct 19, 2026).
  3. One-year total return. Over 1 year to Oct 20, 2026 NULG returned +11.5% and SPYG +15.8% with distributions reinvested, a gap of 4.3 points.

Data as of Oct 20, 2026. The differences are picked by a fixed rule, in a fixed order; the PDF prints it. Page 2 has the returns, overlap, risks and sources.

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What they hold in common

By the books each fund has filed, NULG and SPYG hold 34% of their money in the same securities at the same weight. Holdings dated Jul 31, 2026 and Oct 19, 2026.

half

34% in common

Positions both hold, largest shared weight first
Holding NULG SPYG
NVIDIA Corp 14.91% 14.45%
Broadcom Inc 6.36% 4.38%
Eli Lilly & Co 4.10% 2.73%
Advanced Micro Devices Inc 3.69% 2.42%
Visa Inc 3.17% 1.04%
Lam Research Corp 2.38% 0.94%
Caterpillar Inc 2.27% 0.92%
Applied Materials Inc 2.69% 0.90%
Netflix Inc 1.86% 0.80%
GE Vernova Inc 1.97% 0.67%
Welltower Inc 1.78% 0.46%
Palo Alto Networks Inc 2.46% 0.44%
Only in NULG
Western Digital Corp 2.00%
MercadoLibre Inc 1.67%
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc 1.50%
Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc 1.28%
Analog Devices Inc 1.25%
Sherwin-Williams Co 1.19%
Keysight Technologies Inc 1.06%
Ecolab Inc 1.05%
Only in SPYG
MICROSOFT CORP 10.90%
APPLE INC 6.88%
ALPHABET INC CL A 5.56%
ALPHABET INC CL C 4.45%
META PLATFORMS INC CLASS A 4.28%
AMAZON.COM INC 3.76%
MICRON TECHNOLOGY INC 2.81%
BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY INC CL B 2.73%

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On the same fields

NULG
Nuveen ESG Large-Cap Growth ETF
SPYG
State Street SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 Growth ETF
Where it sits Stock ETF Stock ETF
What it is Tracks an index Tracks the S&P 500 Growth
Total return, 1 year +11.5% +15.8%
Its benchmark over the same days +15.5% (MLRG) +15.7% (IVW)
Gap to its benchmark −4.1 pts vs MLRG +0.1 pts vs IVW
Expense ratio 0.26% 0.04%
Already in the S&P 500 93.8% 100.0%
Holdings 69 152
Net assets, NULG as of Jul 31, 2026 and SPYG as of Oct 20, 2026 $2.7bn $56.1bn

NULG and SPYG on the fields both publish, as of Oct 20, 2026. Source: ETFIQ.

About NULG

NULG tracks an index. Over the year to Oct 20, 2026 it returned +11.5% with distributions reinvested, against +15.5% for its benchmark, the MSCI USA Index. The prospectus expense ratio is 0.26% a year. By its holdings filed for Jul 31, 2026, 94% of the fund by weight is stocks the S&P 500 also holds, across 69 positions, with the top ten at 44.0%. It sat 6.1% below its high of Aug 13, 2026 on Oct 20, 2026.

About SPYG

SPYG tracks the S&P 500 Growth. Over the year to Oct 20, 2026 it returned +15.8% with distributions reinvested, against +15.7% for its benchmark, the S&P 500 Growth Index. The prospectus expense ratio is 0.04% a year. By its holdings published by its issuer for Oct 19, 2026, 100% of the fund by weight is stocks the S&P 500 also holds, across 152 positions, with the top ten at 60.2%. It sat 4.2% below its high of Oct 6, 2026 on Oct 20, 2026.

Questions people ask

Which returned more over the last year, NULG or SPYG?
In the year to Oct 20, 2026, with distributions reinvested, NULG returned +11.5% and SPYG +15.8%.
Which is cheaper, NULG or SPYG?
SPYG is cheaper, by 0.22 percentage points a year. That is about $22 on $10,000 held for a year. Fees come from each fund's prospectus.
How much do NULG and SPYG overlap with the S&P 500?
By their latest filed holdings, 94% of NULG and 100% of SPYG by weight is stocks the S&P 500 already holds.
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ETFIQ, NULG against SPYG, data as of Oct 20, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/any/nulg-vs-spyg

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Free to use with attribution for figures ETFIQ computes; issuer data stays under its owner's terms.